Ash and May both win the Teracotta Town Contest. May decides to travel to Johto. May and Max return to Hoenn. Gary is revealed to have an Electivire. Ash returns to Pallet Town. Gary and Ash go to go to Sinnoh. Ash gets a new Pokédex. Ash leaves his Donphan, Swellow, Sceptile and Corphish.

Contents

Plot

The smoke has cleared and the revelation is there - Ash and May have equal amount of points! Both are declared as winners and they congratulate each other. Nurse Joy goes to give them the ribbon, but there is only one. So, they decide to do something - May throws the ribbon and Sceptile uses Leaf Blade to cut it in half. Later, everyone eats - Brock made a special dinner for May and Ash for the contest victory. May stops them and tells she will go to Johto to participate in the Pokémon Contests - by herself. She tells she depends on Max for too long, but she now knows she has a lot of learn. Brock and Ash support her, as there are Solidad, Drew, even Harley that she will encounter. Max leaves the table, so Ash goes to consult with him.

Ash tells him it is rough not to go with May in Johto. Max agrees to that, but also confesses he is jealous - he wants to grow up so he can be the same as his sister. Still, Ash has an idea - when he grows up, Ash will battle him as a trainer. Max is confident about this and has his spirits raised up. Suddenly, they hear a ship, so May sees that it is time to depart to Hoenn. At the ferry, the heroes wave hands to each other and say goodbye. Later, Max now knows he has to ask his dad to teach him about battling, then he can fight Ash. May proposes to eat Brock's food and Max agrees to this and go inside the ship.

At the crossroads, Brock and Ash are ready to depart. Although they are hungry, Brock tells they used the last of their supplies. Still, Ash will have a feast when he comes back. Ash departs, telling Brock to say hi at the Pewter Gym. Brock also departs to Pewter City. Jessie sees they departed, but James and Meowth want to eat, as they are starving. As they scout for Pikachu, they do not see anything. James and Meowth propose to quit while they can, but Jessie gives them confidence - they are here to capture Pikachu. Suddenly, they see some sparks - they spot a Pokémon, but cannot identify it. Jessie proposes to catch it and she wants to do it, forcing James and Meowth to comply. The Pokémon uses Thunderbolt, getting an apple from a tree and eating it. Meowth fires the net and the Pokémon is captured, so he pulls it.

The Pokémon uses Thunderbolt, struggling to get free. Ash sees the sparks and goes to investigate. Suddenly, a man comes, demanding the explanation of what are they doing. Jessie tells to continue pulling, so Ash comes and tells he will battle them to free the Pokémon. The man comes down and Ash sees a familiar face - it is none other than Gary. Gary tells that Electivire, the Pokémon, can still beat them. Electivire uses Iron Tail to get out, so Team Rocket goes to attack. They are blasted off by the ThunderPunch. Ash goes to scan Electivire, but the Pokédex gives no data. Gary tells he got Electivire is from Sinnoh. Ash proposes to have a battle, but Gary goes away, telling he will be at lab, as Electivire spent too much energy.

Ash comes back to his house and tells his mom he came back. However, he does not see her, so they go to Oak's lab. Still, there is nobody at the lab either. He came to a room and still sees nobody. Suddenly, Tracey and Mr. Mime emerge and give Ash a surprise. Prof. Oak, Gary and Ash's mom come from a nearby room. Ash is surprised at all this and gives mom the plaquette with the Frontier Symbols. Tracey goes to make a party, but Ash has one last thing - to battle Gary. Outside, Pikachu uses Thunderbolt, so Electivire counters with a Thunderbolt of its own. Pikachu uses Quick Attack, but Electivire dodges and attacks with Iron Tail, so Pikachu counters with an Iron Tail of his own. Pikachu charges and uses Thunderbolt, but misses. Pikachu charges with Volt Tackle, but is stopped by Protect. Pikachu is knocked out by the ThunderPunch and defeated.

Gary calls Electivire back. Ash tells Pikachu he thought they could win this one. Gary tells it is good he won the Battle Frontier, but tells there are all sorts of Pokémon in Sinnoh. Gary tells his grandpa he has to leave to Sinnoh as he does not have much time. Ash thinks of what Gary said and now knows what he has to do - like Gary, he will go to Sinnoh. Oak tells he knew this one. At the night, Ash's mom makes new clothes for Ash. Oak wants Ash to go to Sandgem Town and speak to his friend, Prof. Rowan. Ash tells his Pokémon to be nice while he is gone. Also, Oak gives Ash a new Pokédex, filled with info about Sinnoh's Pokémon. Ash tells he will call them from time to time. Swellow, Corphish, Sceptile and Donphan are pleased Ash is going for new victories, but Aipom is not.

At the boat, Ash and Pikachu anticipate to go to Sinnoh. Ash's hat rolls down, but is stopped - Aipom came on board. Ash takes her as well to Sinnoh. Team Rocket is also seen to be traveling to Sinnoh on the same boat, but are holding on the side of the ship. So, Ash goes with his Aipom and Pikachu to become the Sinnoh Champion.

Debuts

Trivia

The instrumental version of 小さきもの A Small Thing from Jirachi: Wish Maker is used as background music.

前向きロケット団！ Face Forward Team Rocket! and an alternate cut of めざせポケモンマスター2001 Aim to Be a Pokémon Master 2001 are also used as background music.

As in the final episode of the previous series, the usual "To be continued" is omitted and replaced with "Next time... A new beginning!".

The preview for Following a Maiden's Voyage! is narrated by the Pokémon Sunday narrator 木村匡也 Kyōya Kimura.

This is the final episode to be played in 24 frames per second. The next season now plays in 30 frames per second.

This episode's title is a pun on the saying "home is where the heart is."

Meowth breaks the fourth wall when James asks upon blasting off if Team Rocket will ever learn. Meowth responds that they'll find out next season.

While Ash's and May's PokéDex recognized Mime Jr., Bonsly and Chatot, it did not scan Electvire, although all of them are Generation IV Pokémon.

The overall episode number is the same as the debuting Pokémon Electivire's Pokédex number: 466.

Errors

In one scene, Electivire's fingers are white instead of black.

In several scenes, the black spot on Electivire's face is not there.

When Gary calls Electivire to use ThunderPunch against Team Rocket, Gary's eyes were teal.

When Gary battles Ash, Electivire uses Iron Tail. Electivire's tail was yellow for a second before its tail glowed.

In one scene, where Ash is talking to Gary, a close up is shown of Gary being outside, when he was inside.

Dub edits

Much of the original background music was removed and replaced.

When Ash is on the ship en route to Sinnoh, he refers to it as an island (The Sinnoh Island) instead of calling it a region. This may be due to the fact that, like Hoenn, it is visibly not connected to any other regions visited.